Tests Say It's Safe To Go In Lake

Dirty Water Stirs Up Winona Neighbors' Ire

CLERMONT — Lake Winona is safe for swimmers, officials say, even though the water contains dead fish and algae blooms since millions of gallons of overflow were pumped into it recently.

The latest test results showed no pollution that could make swimming dangerous.

The results arrived at City Hall Wednesday, a day after scores of angry residents jammed a council meeting demanding that city officials stop pumping into the once-pristine lake.

Tests taken last month, after the city began pumping overflow from Center Lake into the Clermont Chain, had shown pollution in Lake Winona 10 times higher than levels health officials recommend.

City officials, who have been under fire for allowing the pumping, said the old tests, which were taken in only one spot on Lake Winona, weren't representative of the condition of the whole lake.

The public wasn't notified that the pumping would take place.

Since both rounds of pumping from Center Lake, one on March 12 and another on March 19, Lake Winona's water has become cloudy. Residents complain of seeing dead fish. Others say they can no longer see their feet in knee-deep water.

An algae bloom, which sucks oxygen out of the water and can cause fish kills, has appeared.

``You've taken away our lake,'' one woman said angrily at Tuesday's council meeting.

City Manager Wayne Saunders, who approved the siphoning into Lake Winona, said it was unlikely the pumping had caused Winona's problems.

Record rainfall, he said, and runoff from 100 acres that drain into Winona are the likely culprits.

Residents said the ``decaying'' began after the siphoning.

``We've seen this lake go right downhill after the pumping,'' said Mike Shurtleff, who owns a house near Lake Winona.

Others said the city should never have allowed the pumping.

``This, to me, is just extremely reckless,'' said Matt Modica, chairman of the Save Our Lakes Committee, who fought city officials last year over a proposed marina on Lake Minneola.

The city hopes to pump all future overflow into a newly dug water retention pond between Seventh and Carroll streets.

The pump connecting Center Lake to Lake Winona has been removed, Saunders reported.